Contends that failing to learn to write and read in the early years results in more special education placement, retention, and poor self-esteem for the learner than any other cause. Proposes that computer technology may have many benefits for children with such learning difficulties, including motivational aspects and developing fine motor…

A classwide peer tutoring procedure was implemented in an urban elementary school classroom of 23 students, to improve students' spelling performance. Results indicated the untrained or collateral tutoring behaviors increased the academic response frequencies of three tutees and the weekly spelling achievement of one target tutee. (Author/DB)

In an investigation of the distractibility of hyperactive children and controls (N=24) in a focused attention task, differences in task efficiency were not significant. Differences in error percentages were associated with IQ. Variable reaction times in hyperactives are not to be explained in terms of a focused attention deficit. (JW)

The hypothesis was tested that adults have difficulty learning the pronunciation of a second language because atmospherically conducted vocal feedback is masked by the speaker's bone-conducted feedback. A technique delaying atmospherically conducted feedback until bone-conducted feedback was completed was found to help learners modify German…

Discussed is the important role that counting skills play as prerequisites to other mathematics skills. Suggests ways in which counting skills can be taught to young children experiencing learning difficulties. The skills are classified as rote counting, point counting, rational counting, counting on, and skip counting. (YP)

Advice for teachers of minority students includes identifying learning difficulties, creating supportive classroom and home environments, resolving personal learning problems, setting high standards and clear objectives, using students' own experiences in exercises, making the K-12 curriculum sequential, and introducing cooperative learning. (SK)

Twenty children (ages 5-6) with specific language impairment (SLI) were taught a nonlinguistic conceptual rule under imitation or modeling conditions. No intergroup differences were found between the extent of overall learning displayed. Performance of SLI children was not better under the imitation condition than under modeling. (Author/JDD)

A British study of 92 adult basic education students and 32 tutors showed that individualized learning was emphasized at the expense of small groups. "Preferred types" of students, those most likely to be able to do well in open learning, tacitly emerged, limiting access for adults with learning difficulties. (SK)

Two experiments with 89 fifth-grade and 166 intermediate-grade students with learning problems found that specific strategy training improved fifth graders' level of knowledge and performance on a categorical memory test, and metamemory and metacognitive reading training improved metacognitive knowledge and academic achievement of the learning…

Stimulus control technology was used to instruct seven students in grades five and six who demonstrated difficulty with fraction ratio and decimal relations. Students were trained to match pictorial representations of fractions to printed counterpart fraction ratios and to match printed decimals to pictorial representations of counterpart…

Argues that special and segregating programs for students having difficulty learning focus on within-child deficits, keep students apart from their peers, and lower teacher expectations. The authors make a case for urban schools and teacher preparation that enhance skills in dealing with diverse learners and encourage inclusion. (GR)

This article highlights how instructional management differs from behavior management in terms of common practice, and demonstrates how an instructional strategy used to address persistent academic errors, called "precorrection," can be applied to change chronic problem behaviors. Seven basic correction and precorrection steps are…

Of 124 students (ages 5-15) with behavioral/emotional problems, 38 percent were identified as also having learning disabilities and an additional 17.8 percent as having learning problems. The incidence of learning disabilities decreased with age, but that of learning problems remained stable regardless of age groupings. (DB)

After an overview of several studies of cognitive instruction used with problem learners, the article describes two learning mechanisms that explain why such cognitive interventions work--prolepsis (communication that initially leaves implicit some information) and reflective abstraction (changing observables into meaningful internalized…

The miracles of modern medical technology are sometimes accompanied by unanticipated costs affecting survivors' quality of life. This article considers the educational implications for three groups of children who could not survive without medical intervention: children treated for cancer, low birth-weight and premature infants, and the medically…